Wednesday, 10 May 2017

Sri Lanka’s Tamils oppose ‘Vesak Day’ celebrations

Sri Lanka’s Tamils oppose ‘Vesak Day’ celebrations

Sri Lankan Tamils have voiced (आवाज उठाई )displeasure (नाराजगी ) over the military’s ‘Vesak Day’ celebration in the former conflict zone, saying all should observe it as a ‘Black Day’ as no justice has been delivered to the victims of the brutal (क्रूर) civil war. Vesak, which marks the birth, the attainment of the Buddhahood and his death is celebrated with national holidays today and tomorrow. “No justice had been delivered even after 8 years have passed after the Mulliwaikkal genocide(नरसंहार), the military is celebrating on an ever-increasing scale, the Vesak in North to cover it and to Sinhalisation of the North,” Selvarajah Kajendran, the Secretary of the Tamil National People Front and a former parliamentarian told reporters. The month of May, he alleged(कथित तौर पर), is the month of “genocide”. “All Tamil people are observing it as a ‘Black Month’. May 12th to May 18th are to be observed as Mulliwaikkal Commemoration week. All should come forward to observe it as a ‘Black Day’,” he said. The LTTE’s 30-year separatist campaign ended on May 18, 2009 at Mulliwaikkal in the northeastern Mullaithivu district where Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed by Lankan troops. He said the ‘Vesak’ is celebrated by the military on a grand scale to trample the feelings of the Tamil people and to demonstrate the Sinhala country in the North and East. Kajendran urged President Maithripala Sirisena to cancel his visit to Mulliwaikkal on the May 18. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive here tomorrow to be the chief guest at the UN Day of ‘Vesak’ conference to be held from May 12 to 14. Sri Lanka in 1999 had moved at UN for international recognition of Vesak.

According to the UN figures, up to 40,000 civilians were killed by the security forces during former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime that brought an end to the conflict with the defeat of LTTE in 2009.